Independent artists could disappear from YouTube "in a matter of days" after the Google video service confirmed it was dropping content from independent labels that have not signed up for its upcoming subscription music service.

YouTube is about to begin testing the new service – which will charge people to watch and listen to music without ads, and download songs to their mobile devices – within the next few days, initially within Google.

It would be both petty and premature for me to say "Haha, fuck you, GoDaddy," but I do have to admit that's the first thing I thought.

At worst, this'll be another dud like Google+ that doesn't make a dent in the established market leader. At best, it'll produce a superior product and some serious competition and force GoDaddy to up its game.

sei wrote:Namecheap et all didn't manage to slap the giant fucking cock out of GoDaddy's mouth.

Yeah, but they're not Google. Google managed to get a plurality of Windows users to stop using IE.

sei wrote:Google will be competing with GD for newbies' dollars. In the end, it's going to just be a marketing battle, not a matter of service quality or pricing competition.

Well, yes. I was just hoping they provide a better service on principle, mostly. If Google provides a better registrar, that's good for everybody. If some of its features or pricing put pressure on GoDaddy to match them, that's a good thing too.

Free anonymous registration is a good start. I'm also quite curious to see what kinds of web development tools they're talking about and hoping it's not just Blogger or the stuff I screwed around with a couple of years ago when my wife had to make a website for a college class.

REVEALED: Google's proposed indie music-killing contract terms wrote:Google wants to launch a new Spotify-style streaming service under its YouTube brand, and so requires music labels to sign new contracts with it. A leaked copy of one such contract reveals that Mountain View proposes to block indies who refuse to sign the new contracts from YouTube's video service - which is the de facto global digital jukebox

In short, the move will preserve Google's illegal supply chain by cracking down on its legal supply chain.

[...]

Under the terms of the published version of the contract, indies must promise not only to never sue Google - under a “Covenant Not To Sue” - but give immunity to punters who continue to upload the label's own material to YouTube's massively popular video service.

Why does this matter? Getting your stuff taken down from YouTube is hugely costly and in practice, almost impossible, thanks to "safe harbour" provisions designed to protect ISPs and other service providers in the mid-1990s, when the public internet was in its infancy. It requires an individual URL-by-URL take-down notice to be filed for each infringement. Google can continue to monetise the label's music via YouTube, even without the label's permission.

[...]

One legal source familiar with digital music contracts claimed the terms amount to a restraint of trade.

"It's a contract so bad that you would never sign it in normal circumstances. But Google has a gun to your head," our source said.

sei wrote:Google will be competing with GD for newbies' dollars. In the end, it's going to just be a marketing battle, not a matter of service quality or pricing competition.

Well, yes. I was just hoping they provide a better service on principle, mostly. If Google provides a better registrar, that's good for everybody. If some of its features or pricing put pressure on GoDaddy to match them, that's a good thing too.

Free anonymous registration is a good start. I'm also quite curious to see what kinds of web development tools they're talking about and hoping it's not just Blogger or the stuff I screwed around with a couple of years ago when my wife had to make a website for a college class.

Dreamhost and others already do free WHOIS privacy.

I'm not sure I trust Google to not fuck privacy up by doing something backwards like trying to tie domain registration to Google+.